The global water security: an approach for multilevel governance on hydric resources

Abstract

Water has been ranked first among the top five global risks in terms of social impact. Yet, the vision of water as a sustainability variable has lost strength to the detriment of the security concept. This paper proposes an approach of global water governance based on water security (WS) to respond to the increasing water shortage on the planet. The method involved the usage of qualitative procedures, the analysis of regulatory documents related to international water management, and the interviews of five experts within the management and regulation sectors. The process was useful in determining five main scopes and to articulate the framework to promote WS: first - risk as water management paradigms; secondly - review of the international regulatory framework and creation of a United Nation specialised agency for WS; thirdly - transversal link for WS between different actors; fourthly - applying WS mechanisms in river basins; fifthly - adoption of new analytical methods.